It was a blast. Feeling somewhat delicate due to several hours of systematic alcohol abuse, but satisfied. After a shaky start (more of which later), the evening cranked up to a respectable level of rock’n’roll excess, and I ended the night with a smile on my face. What more can you ask???
The shaky start was down to the venue. The management of Parker Place decided they didn’t want the live music acts to start until 11PM! Oh – and they told me this at 9:30, when I was asking how we could turn off the house music to get the PA live. Much grumbling ensued, and we got a compromise – 10:45. Wow – thanks! But the venue cost me nothing, so there wasn’t much I could do about it…
Anyway, we decided to get Adam (half of Eight Foot Elvis) up to spin the decks for a while (this we were allowed to do), while waiting for the alloted hour to come. And come about 10:50, I was up there playing a tune for the faithful groupies who waited patiently for me to perform. I played two songs, then hopped off and handed the reins to Ian of Mad Alfredo – steadfastly ignoring the cries of “More!” (yes, there actually were some – poor misguided souls!).
And Ian got on down with his home-grown tunes and a sprinkling of covers – come the last song, Man of Constant Sorrow, I was moved to leap up onto the stage and belt out the backing vocals, much to Ian’s amusement. But hey – it was my party, and I was quite drunk. And I suspect my performances were somewhat below par as a result, but everybody else was trashed, so they seemed to enjoy it. My kinda crowd!
Ian had to tear off to catch the last tube, and it was Gin Panic’s turn to raise the temperature to a healthy level. And with Dew on the mixing desk, they had possibly the best sound I’ve ever heard them produce. Well, Dew’s been working with these guys for a while now, and he knows what they should sound like. And next week, they’re all jetting over to Ireland to record an album with him. All very professional! 🙂
They rocked. They rolled. They raised the roof. Dew later confided to me that he was asked four times to turn it down, he he. He needed no encouragement to disregard them, but I told him to blast it out – I had an axe to grind with the place, and the music was certainly LOUD. Dellamorte finished the night with his wicked breaks – ultimately playing in an impenetrable fog generated by the smoke machine (why? Who knows?!) to a rapidly-dwindling crowd. Nuff respect to the man – he played the night out. Cheers mate!
And of course big cheers to the posse who turned up – you made the night, people! I really felt the love in the room, y’know? 😉
Oh – and a big hi/bye to Kiz, who’s departing this sceptred isle next weekend to return Down Under – this time apparently for good. All the best Kiz – spare a thought for us when you’re sunning yourself in Byron Bay and we’re freezing our b****cks off! Somehow, though, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her… 🙂
That’s it from me – I’m going to detox gently and wait for some semblance of humanity to return to me. Sometime around the middle of next week sounds feasible….